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Settlement patterns of female barn swallows Hirundo rustica across different group sizes: access to colorful males or favored nests?

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Abstract

In most avian species, individuals are faced with two critical decisions at the start of a breeding season: choosing a breeding site and a mate. An analysis of these decisions in light of population-level patterns, such as group size variation in social breeders, can illuminate the causes and patterns of habitat selection behavior. Group sizes are variable in barn swallows; however, no clear and consistent benefits of group breeding have been found in this species, and it is puzzling as to why individuals breed socially. Previous analyses demonstrated that individuals aggregate to gain access to nests that were constructed during previous seasons; however extra-pair matings are also prevalent in this species, raising questions about the mate-selection strategies of females across different group sizes. In this paper, I address the question of how females make their first site-selection decisions in terms of two features known to be causally related to seasonal reproductive success: (1) colorful males or (2) old nests. Using experimental and observational data, I tested, but found no support for, the hypotheses that propose female settlement decisions are a function of (1) the prevalence of colorful males or (2) the increased opportunity for extra-pair matings at group sites. Instead, it is apparent that female settlement patterns are strongly tied to the availability of old nests at a site. Extra-pair fertilizations are equally common across all group sizes in this population, suggesting that females do not face a trade-off between old nests and the possibility of extra-pair mating decisions when making settlement decisions.

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Acknowledgement

I thank many individuals for the assistance with data collection, especially J. Anderson, K. Belinsky, T. Bruce, M. Byrne, J. DaCosta, S. Flaxman, M. Hauber, D. Hawley, M. Griesser, J. Hill, I. Lovette, J. Martin, K. McGraw, S. McRae, S. Mendler, C. Neuman, A. Romero, and K. Roux, J. Schuetz, L. Stenzler, and B. Taft. Many landowners across Tompkins County, including Cornell University, graciously provided access to their populations of barn swallows. Stimulating discussion with and the advice of C. Brown, D. Hawley, M. Hauber and S. Flaxman, R. Vallender, H. Greene, A. Lotem, P. Sherman, M. Wells, D. Winkler, and all the members of the Winkler lab (D. Ardia, T. Bruce, C. Burney, V. Ferretti, P. Lambias, G. Langham, J. Schuetz, L. Stenzler, and M. Wasson) were invaluable throughout this project. This manuscript benefited from comments by D. Ardia, D. Hawley, S. Flaxman, K. McGraw, D. Rubenstein, P. Sherman, and D. Winkler. Funding was provided by the American Ornithologists’ Union, the Animal Behavior Society, the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell, the National Science Foundation (Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant # 0308392 to R.J. Safran and D.W. Winkler), the Purple Martin Conservation Association, Sigma Xi, and the Wilson Ornithological Society. Support during data collection was provided by a training grant in Computational Biology from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Biometrics at Cornell (1998–2000) and the American Association of University Women’s American Fellowship (2003–2004). Support during final manuscript preparation was provided by the Council on Science and Technology Postdoctoral Fellowship and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University. All of the sampling and experimental methods were approved by The Cornell University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (Number 01–51) and eggs were collected under permits from the US Fish & Wildlife Service and the New York Department of Environmental Conservation.

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  1. Rebecca J. Safran

    Present address: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, 106A Guyot Hall, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA

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  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

    Rebecca J. Safran

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Communicated by C. Brown

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Safran, R.J. Settlement patterns of female barn swallows Hirundo rustica across different group sizes: access to colorful males or favored nests?. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 61, 1359–1368 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-007-0366-6

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